Career profile
Over more than three decades, Italian horn player Alberto Cappiello has moved from the pit of Italy’s greatest opera house to the solo spotlight of concert halls around the world.
Italian Foundations
Alberto Cappiello was born on 25 June 1969 in Cles, a small town in the Trentino province of northern Italy, and began studying the horn at ten. He trained in Rimini and at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica “G. Rossini” in Pesaro, completing his diploma in 1988 with the highest marks, and that year joined the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, a recognised stepping stone into the country’s professional orchestral world.
He continued his studies abroad – in Budapest on a scholarship, and then in Dresden at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber, where he earned the special soloist diploma in 1996 with top marks. In 1993 he had already taken a Special Prize at the Philip Farkas International Horn Competition in Budapest, and in 2010 he was a finalist at two further international competitions, in London and Copenhagen.
The La Scala Years
From the late 1980s, Cappiello performed with a series of leading Italian opera houses and symphony orchestras, including the orchestra of Teatro alla Scala in Milan – Italy’s most prominent opera house — the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Turin Philharmonic, and the Lugano Radio Orchestra. He also appeared in the Sanremo Music Festival orchestra in 2010 and 2013, before a national television audience.
A Turning Point in 2014
In 2014, Cappiello ended his regular orchestral collaborations to concentrate on a solo career, drawn to the horn concertos of Strauss, Glière, Michael Haydn, and Weber. It was a decisive change of direction that opened the door to an international touring life.
Conquering New Audiences
As a soloist he has performed with the Korea Symphony Orchestra – across four separate engagements between 2017 and 2026 – the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra of Mexico City, the Vilhena Symphony Orchestra in Brazil, and ensembles across Venezuela, Germany, Armenia, and the Caribbean. His November 2023 performance of Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 in Seoul was, according to Italian press, received “as a star,” and drew coverage in both Italy and South Korea. A 2022 appearance with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra even led the conductor of the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra to be invited to Italy.
A Distinctive Voice
Italian press has praised Cappiello’s “sound power and innovative style,” a blend of the Central European brass school and the Italian operatic tradition. In 2024 he toured Central America and the Caribbean, performing with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta Filarmónica de San Vicente, and in 2025 he performed Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2 in Mexico City and Glière’s Horn Concerto in Korea and Brazil.
He performs in recital as well as with orchestras, including horn-and-piano duo programmes, and additionally serves as principal horn with the Dolomiti Symphony Orchestra in Italy and the Adıyaman Philharmonic Orchestra in Turkey.
Recordings
His discography is available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube, and YouTube Music, and includes his debut album The Weber Concertos, the Richard Strauss Horn Concertos, the Bach Suites, and the Forster Horn Concerto, alongside an earlier studio recording of Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2 made in the Republic of San Marino. Since 2017 he has led the Rimini Chamber Orchestra as artistic director and principal horn, premiering Glière’s Horn Concerto in a chamber arrangement for horn and strings – the latest chapter in a career that began far from the international stage. More information is available at albertocappiello.it.